Book Review: Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Designby Rich Deem

Book Review

Synopsis:
Origin of Life & intelligent designSummary: Signature in the Cell is an expansive examination of the origin of life, based upon the results from the latest scientific studies. Stephen Meyer takes us through the history of origins of life research and shows why all naturalistic theories fail to realistically explain how life originated.

History of origin of life research

Meyer begins with the history of the discovery of DNA's structure by Watson
and Crick (among others). The story is a fascinating description of how the
two young researchers determined DNA's structure mostly through using clues
derived from the research of others. Watson and Crick thought "outside the
box" to solve the puzzle that opened up the secrets of how living organisms
operate. Much of the initial chapters of the book describe Meyer's own
personal discovery of why intelligent design provides a better explanation
of life's beginnings than any naturalistic model. Meyer originally earned
degrees in physics and geology and began working for an oil company in Texas
looking for oil deposits. Meyer's interest in DNA and design led him to
apply for a scholarship and enrolled to study the history and philosophy of
science at the University of Cambridge. After completing his Ph.D., Meyers
became involved in the intelligent design movement, producing numerous
papers and books.

Information theory

Much of the emphasis of
Signature in the Cell
is on information theory. We all know that DNA contains the information
necessary to build and run living organisms. During the development of
computing systems, mathematician, Claude Shannon developed "The Mathematical
Theory of Communications." Information theory relates the probability of a
specific sequence of information in a sequence of bits. Depending upon
length, any random sequence of information has a certain probability based
upon its length. However, this random "Shannon information" is not the basis
of the claim that DNA has been designed by an intelligent being. In order to
provide evidence for intelligent design, the information must be both
improbable and specified. One of the best examples of specified
information comes from the search for a hypothetical first RNA
replicator. In order to find just one partial replicator, scientists had to go
through a list of 1015 different RNA molecules. The fact that RNA
replicator sequences are rare, coupled with specificity requirement makes
the appearance of the first replicator extremely unlikely.

Explanatory power

The basis of the intelligent design claim is that it provides more
explanatory power than competing theories about the origin of information
and the origin of life. Although origin of life researchers had attempted to
explain the appearance of the first replicator through some kind of law of
physics or chemistry, it became apparent as more research was done that no
such law existed. Therefore, all origin of life theories must rely upon
chance as the designer of the information required to form the first
organism. With limited time and the limited size of the universe, the laws
of physics do not provide a reasonable explanation as to how the required
information arose through random process. In contrast, intelligent beings
are capable of and have the motivation to produce information-rich designs.
So, the intelligent design theory provides superior explanatory power
regarding how the first living organism arose.

Origin of life theories

Meyers gives an excellent review of the numerous naturalistic origin of life
theories that have been proposed over the years and why those theories have
failed (nearly all have been rejected by contemporary origin of life
researchers. Today, there are two main origin of life theories—both of
which have serious theoretical and practical deficits. Metabolism-first
theories suffer from the requirement to produce numerous energy-harvesting
enzymes within some kind of membrane barrier in the absence of any specific
way to replicate such a system. Meyers shows that the probability of getting
just one such enzyme is impossible, given the age and size of the universe.
The most "promising" origin of life theory is the RNA World. However, as
mentioned previously, attempts to find even a partial RNA replicator have
proven extremely difficult, even with intelligent beings designing such
replicators. The main problem with the replicator hypothesis is that not
just one sequence needs to form by chance, but that sequence and its exact
complementary strand. Gerald Joyce and Leslie Orgel calculated that in order
to get just one 50-mer replicator would require an RNA library of 1048
molecules—which exceeds the mass of the earth! Even more concerning is
that the minimum replicator size found to-date is 189-mer, which is much
less likely to be produced compared to a 50-mer. Even the 189-mer
replicator can only replicate 10% of its sequence under ideal conditions.
Obviously, for any replicator to work, it must be capable of replicating
100% of its sequence. Although really informative, this section of the book
is necessarily somewhat technical, so a non-scientist will find the material
challenging. As a scientist, I found the information really helpful.

Is ID science?

Meyers spends the final few chapters on the question of whether intelligent
design qualifies as science. Much of the discussion centers around
definitions of science among the different scientific disciplines and how
those definitions apply to intelligent design theory. Meyers shows that not
all disciplines of science fit neatly in the standard definitions of what
science is. In other words, things such as testability and falsifiability
are difficult to apply to historical sciences, such as evolution. Likewise,
these characteristics are generally not applicable to intelligent design. To
a certain degree, I tend to agree with scientists who complain that
intelligent design is difficult to test or falsify. Likewise, intelligent
design cannot produce a model, because it has no basis on which one can be
created. In contrast, something like biblical creationism, which is based
upon statements from the Bible, can produce a model that can be tested by
future scientific discoveries.

Conclusions

Signature in the Cell
by Stephen Meyer is a really good examination of the issues surrounding
origin of life research and how intelligent design theory can contribute to the
discussion. The book is relatively long at 624 pages, but about 30% of that is
devoted to notes and appendices. I particularly like that the book is
well-referenced and will be looking into many of the issues more thoroughly when
I get a chance. Most of the book is quite readable, even for somebody without an
extensive science background. In addition, there are a fair number of
philosophical arguments that are cited, which would be more appealing to
general, non-science audiences. In my opinion, origin of life research provides
probably the best evidence for intelligent design theory and Meyers does a
really good job explaining it. So, I highly recommend
Signature in the Cell
if that is where your interests lie.